Introduction to Orchestrator Plug-Ins

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With the Orchestrator plug-ins, you can access and control external technologies and applications. Exposing an external technology in an Orchestrator plug-in lets you incorporate objects and functions in workflows and run workflows on the objects of that external technology.

The external technologies that you access by using plug-ins include virtualization management tools, email systems, databases, directory services, and remote control interfaces.

Orchestrator provides a standard set of preinstalled plug-ins, which expose the VMware vCenter Server API, email and authentication capabilities, and other technologies. In addition, the Orchestrator open plug-in architecture lets you to develop plug-ins to access other applications. Orchestrator implements open standards to simplify integration with external systems. For information about developing custom content, see Developing with VMware vRealize Orchestrator.

The standard set of plug-ins is automatically installed with the Orchestrator server. You might need to configure some of the plug-ins, for example the vCenter Server plug-in, before start using them.

Plug-ins extend the Orchestrator scripting engine with new object types and methods, and plug-ins publish notification events from the external system that triggers events in Orchestrator and in the plugged-in technology. Plug-ins provide an inventory of JavaScript objects that you can access on the Inventory tab of the Orchestrator client. Each plug-in contains packages of workflows and actions that you can run on the objects in the inventory to automate the typical use cases of the integrated product.

Orchestrator contains a workflow library and a workflow engine to allow you to create and run workflows that automate orchestration processes. You run workflows on the objects of different technologies that Orchestrator accesses through a series of plug-ins.

Orchestrator includes a collection of standard plug-ins. Each plug-in exposes an external product API to the Orchestrator platform. Plug-ins provide inventory classes, additional object types for the scripting engine, and publish notification events from the external system. Each plug-in also provides a library of workflows for automating the typical use cases of the integrated external products.